Black & Gold Mania in Local Bars

Football Fans Show off their Saints inspired creativity

With the Saints off to a franchise-best start this season, Black and
Gold mania has made just about every local bar into a sports bar. Some
have broken out their own forms of tailgating.

Whether you prefer the pandemonium of food and drink at
Handsome Willy's every Sunday or the more plush atmosphere at Monkey
Hill, which now offers a buffet during Saints games, anyone looking for
a suitable game-watching plan is spoiled withchoices.

For some, just drinking and eating won't do when it
comes to game-day rituals. That was the logic behind Mid-City resident
Jeanne Vidrine and her friends' decision to start a bicycle pub crawl
for Saints games.

"We all knew the Mid-City Bulldog, so we decided that
was a logical starting point," she says. "Pub crawls are so hard to do
in Mid-City, so we thought, why not go by bike?"

And just like that, a new Saints tradition is rolling.
Vidrine gathered enough riders to convince the Bulldog to open earlier
than usual to accommodate them. The group then pedals to the Mid-City
Yacht Club, Liuzza's, Mick's Irish Pub and finally Finn McCool's. It
finishes with a long ride down Cleveland Avenue to the Superdome, a
ride the group has taken for every Saints' late-afternoon or night
game.

"We would do it for every game, but some of us have
families and kids we have to be with for the away games," Vidrine
says.

Fortunately, there are other activities to keep Vidrine
and company occupied. McCool's hosts a cooking competition every Sunday
during the season. Multiple dishes are submitted each week during the
Saints' season and patrons get an opportunity to judge the culinary
works as they enjoy the game. The winning cook takes home a trophy. A
two-time cook-off winner, Vidrine's winning "Meat Me In St. Louis" dish
beat out other worthy competitors including "Silence of the Rams Stew"
and "Missouri Mash" on a recent afternoon.

"It was just a three-and-a-half pound rump roast from
Rouses," she says. "I just mixed it with the most delicious gravy I
could come up with and people loved it."

Good food in mass quantities ensures there will be
plenty to go around. The competition also allows people with special
diets to find something suitable in the spread. On Nov. 15, Vidrine's
concoction narrowly edged Shannon Cian's vegetarian "Squash the Rams"
dish. Cian is a self-described "New Orleans vegetarian," or a
vegetarian who eats fish, and all her dishes reflect her lifestyle. In
contrast to Vidrine, Cian says her dish names are not ready for the
playoffs.

"Our names suck," she says. "One was 'Bengal Barf' and
another was 'Dirty Sanchez Casserole.'"

Game-day creativity has not been left to cooks alone. At
Finn McCool's, Heber Dunaway of the band Sick Like Sinatra led a group
of Saints fans in a sing-along of the band's new tune "Something about
the Saints."

The idea for a Saints song had been brewing among band
members for a year, but it wasn't until the team cemented its
record-setting regular season start that the group finalized the track.
The impromptu rally at Finn McCool's after the Saints' victory over the
Rams marked the song's debut.

"I live right around the corner," Dunaway says. "They
know me, and I knew they wouldn't object if I rolled in here and played
it. It's already made the jukebox."

Indeed, half an hour after the post-game euphoria died
down and the bar cleared out a bit for the late games, "About the
Saints" could be heard over the bar's sound system.